Buy an Apple TV by March 5, get a $25 iTunes gift card

Deal comes ahead of rumored hardware refresh.

If you've been thinking about buying an Apple TV, Apple is trying to sweeten the deal for the next few days. Between now and March 5, anyone who buys an Apple TV in one of Apple's stores or on its online store will get a $25 iTunes gift card with their purchase.

According to the terms and conditions (PDF), Apple TV hardware purchased from other locations isn't eligible for the gift card, and neither is refurbished hardware purchased from Apple. The deal is only available to individuals, and not to businesses or other organizations.

Apple hasn't provided a major update for its Apple TV hardware since March of 2012, and several rumors have said that a revised version will be out by the end of the year—this deal may just be a way to clear out some inventory ahead of a new launch. The upgraded hardware will reportedly come with a revamped, iOS-based operating system and some new content deals. We don't know whether the current Apple TV will get the same software and content upgrades, so if you take advantage of this weekend's deal you should know what you're getting into.

Whatever happens to the Apple TV next, it's clear that the box is a growing business for Apple. CEO Tim Cook said at Apple's shareholder meeting today that the Apple TV had generated $1 billion in revenue for Apple in 2013—it's not a patch on the iPhone or even the iPod, but it's more than enough to justify Apple's continued investment in the device.

Andrew Cunningham
Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

I've been holding out for the next gen too. This deal does nothing to motivate me to get a current one, because for months you've been able to buy an Apple-refurbished Apple TV for $75, almost the same deal. (For those who don't know, Apple refurbs are essentially the same quality as new with the same warranty.)

The AppleTV's OS is already based on iOS. Perhaps you meant to say the new OS would inherit the new iOS styling?

I was actually wondering about this. I highly doubt that the OS wasn't based on iOS. I don't even think they would really be interested in changing the styling, since what they have now works better for the form factors. I think they are more talking about bringing the capabilities more inline with iOS (ie: app store).

Dang I need a simple streaming device in one of my rooms and I was looking at roku or Apple TV. I already have google chromecast (which would be awesome if apps were made to use it). And an original model roku.

I was kind of holding off to see the Apple TV refresh but this makes it harder as the current atv does the stuff I want now.

I've been holding out for the next gen too. This deal does nothing to motivate me to get a current one, because for months you've been able to buy an Apple-refurbished Apple TV for $75, almost the same deal. (For those who don't know, Apple refurbs are essentially the same quality as new with the same warranty.)

Eh? I never look at refurbs but 25 cash worth more to me than 25 iTunes card.

Thanks to all of you here to go back to waiting. I guess I would be pissed if the next gen had a great feature of two that I gave up for a 25 dollar iTunes card. I have been waiting a long time to pull the trigger.

Actually that is pretty much what I want. An appleCAST device that works with airplay. I think the google chromecast is an amazing device. It is simply limited by the number of apps that have integrated the sdk. If apple could make an adjunct device like that for airplay I would buy a couple.

I hope the new AppleTV4 acts as an iTunes/iPhoto server with a hard disk/ssd. Act as a local "cloud storage" in my home. This would allow me to sync my ipod/iphone/ipad/mac locally . I've heard rumors of this.

(For those who don't know, Apple refurbs are essentially the same quality as new with the same warranty.)

FWIW, I went to trade in my old iP5 at Best Buy. Yeah, I know. But I was having one of those 'need instant gratification' type of days. Anyway, they wouldn't take it. The lady looked at her monitor, then looked at me and asked if it was a refurb. It was, because that was the replacement phone that Applecare gave me after my old one took a bath. She showed me her monitor and pointed out that it was not a part number that BB couldn't take. So yes, the refurbs are probably just as good. But they are also identified by a part number too. In some cases, such as trading something in at BB or maybe selling to a savvy buyer, that can matter. As an aside, since that event, I have been more happy to hear Apple will try to repair more devices than simply hand out new (refurb'd) units on Applecare claims.

Edit: On topic, love my Apple TV. Easily ties all the movies and pictures collected on iOS devices along with iTunes catalog and photo servers into the family entertainment center.

I hope the new AppleTV4 acts as an iTunes/iPhoto server with a hard disk/ssd. Act as a local "cloud storage" in my home. This would allow me to sync my ipod/iphone/ipad/mac locally . I've heard rumors of this.

I seriously doubt they would be able to (or want to) do that at the same price point. IMHO a Mac Mini is already a better device for this, and has the power to back it up.

I think an interesting move would be if they try HDMI Passthrough. I've been a big fan of that idea and it makes more sense than trying to build a whole TV or CATV replacement.

The Google TV implementation of HDMI passthrough was really weak. The XBOX One's implementation has been pretty good so far. I love fast switching between apps, not needing extra HDMI ports or a receiver/switch to go back and forth between devices.

My only problem with the XB1 is that all my content and mobile devices are Apple, so my content is DRM locked. If Apple did a good job on the integration of TV listings and services to an HDMI Passthrough device, I'd swap out all of mine.

The Beard (blogger Jim Dalrymple, who has unquestionably the best sources for this kind of thing) says "nope"

I thought it was strange that all the media outlets were thinking a hardware refresh was coming because of this deal and because of the new tab on the Apple home page -- if anything, it seems like they're doubling down on the current setup.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the current hardware, but it really does need a software update to record and remember a cable TV password ONCE rather than spread out among all the differently-enabled mushroom apps. It would also be "neat" to output audio to bluetooth (the Roku 3 remote and the PS4 controller are nice in this respect) but it seems unlikely they'll update the silver sliver remote just yet.

I hope the new AppleTV4 acts as an iTunes/iPhoto server with a hard disk/ssd. Act as a local "cloud storage" in my home. This would allow me to sync my ipod/iphone/ipad/mac locally . I've heard rumors of this.

No, you have never heard rumors of this. What you want is the AppleTV1, which had a hard drive for local storage. Why waste time syncing from the computer to a hard drive based AppleTV when you could use Wi-Fi and have it run faster than syncing data from one drive to another? You are stuck in the past. The syncing concept was retarded. Your computer would be the "cloud storage" you are seeking for your iTunes/iPhoto server.